JPMorgan States Sapphire Covers To Be Rare For The IPhone 6

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JPMorgan Securities Ltd does not think the initial launch of the iPhone 6 will have sapphire crystal for its main display in any significant volume

Though we have been hearing about a sapphire glass display for the upcoming iPhone 6 in most of the leaks, JPMorgan Securities Ltd thinks the opposite. According to what they have suspected, the iPhone 6 is most likely to forego the sapphire crystal if it is introduced this fall (something that is most likely to happen). Or at least this feature won’t be included on the display of all the iPhone 6s.

Apple has remained mum on their latest upcoming flagship phone and we have had limited disclosure of the phone. And according to the brokerage’s latest industry report which was released this Tuesday, JPMorgan believes the volume will be about 10 million covers this year in either 4.7-inch or 5.5-inch models for the new phone’s cover glass adoption. This volume represents merely 1 percent of the entire smartphone market according to what JPMorgan says.

The brokerage has said in the report that “Sapphire covers will also be restricted to high-end iPhones, possibly the 128GB [gigabyte] ones”. This report has been authored by analysts Narci Chang (張恆), J.J. Park and Jay Kwon and expects the adoption to rise severalfold next year. “We believe this will mark only the beginning of sapphire smartphone cover adoption,” they wrote.

It is being speculated that this sapphire crystal is going to provide an alternative for Corning Inc’s damage-resistant Gorilla glass as smartphone cover material.

“Due to various challenges related to the new cover material, we believe the production output for sapphire covers will be low,” JPMorgan analysts said. “Sapphire ingot yield rates could be as low as below 50 percent for this size, and finished sapphire smartphone covers may cost as much as US$40 to US$45 versus below US$10 for finished Gorilla glass.”